Lot 277
277
A previously unknown, exceptionally rare and early Gille Jeune bébé for Cremer
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more
A previously unknown, exceptionally rare and early Gille Jeune bébé for Cremer

Details
A previously unknown, exceptionally rare and early Gille Jeune bébé for Cremer
with pressed bisque child's shoulder head with open/closed mouth showing teeth and tongue, extra mould lines, collar bone dip and shoulder blades, applied ears, delicately painted grey brows and black lashes, the English stuffed cotton body with bisque arms and legs with delicately modelled feet, her clothes including a muslin frock with flounces, petticoat, corset and boots, 1860s --24in. (61cm.) high, stamped on the body Cremer Junior Maker and on the underside of the shoulder plate Gille Jeune's raised blue monogrammed tablet and incised No.8 bis (head and hands restored); with additional clothes and a bed
Provenance
Bought for Iris Thomson, the present owner's grandmother, whose father Captain Frank T. Thomson was Captain of the Royal Yaught from 1877 to his death in 1884.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

It appears that Cremer, who was a skillful shopkeeper, ordered the body parts from Jean-Baptiste Gille, a well known Paris bisque figure maker at No.28 rue Paradis Poissonniére between 1837-68. Gille had exhibited at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. The body is a simple one, such as one would expect on an English poured wax doll.
Perhaps the No.8 bis denotes the mould and suggests two sizes.

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